BRITAIN’S top asylum judge criticised the Government yesterday for its failure to deport more illegal immigrants and failed asylum-seekers.

In a rare public intervention in the sensitive area of asylum and immigration policy, Mr Justice Henry Hodge warned ministers that there was every incentive for failed asylum-seekers to play the system to try to stay.

Ministers have struggled to increase the number of failed asylum-seekers who are removed, though the numbers have risen recently.

Tony McNulty, the Immigration Minister, has said that the Home Office has failed to meet the Prime Minister’s target that by the end of last year more failed asylum-seekers would be removed each month than the number of applicants with an unfounded claim. He said he hoped that the target would be met next month.

Sir Henry, the president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, and Mr Justice Collins, a High Court judge, highlighted problems in the asylum and immigration system when they gave evidence to MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

Sir Henry said that the tribunal was working hard to clear a backlog of 22,000 appeals but too often their efforts came to nothing. He said that more failed asylum-seekers were being removed, but in immigration cases “removals is a big, big problem”. He added: “An effective removal system would be great.”

Sir Henry, who is married to Margaret Hodge, the Employment Minister, called on ministers to improve efforts to ensure that failed migrants were sent home. He acknowledged the difficulties facing officials in Britain and other parts of Europe in trying to organise removals, particularly where migrants had no travel papers and states were unwilling to accept them.

Sir Henry said: “My own view is that the Home Office has got to work with the Foreign Office to get this right. The problems are that countries won’t take lots of people back,” he said. “They [the Foreign Office and Home Office] need to redouble their efforts.”

He disclosed that the Home Office had inaccurate figures on the number of pending asylum appeals. It had estimated that there were 30,000 outstanding appeals last April but the figure was 42,000.

Sir Henry said that the backlog of 22,000 would be cleared by spring next year.

Both Sir Henry and Mr Justice Collins highlighted the financial incentive for asylum-seekers and immigrants to appeal.

Sir Henry said that 65 per cent of people refused asylum by the Home Office sought to overturn the decision at an immigration and asylum tribunal. “There is absolutely no reason for them not to do so because they want to stay and there is no cost element, so they keep going,” he said.

Sir Henry, who built up a large law firm in North London dealing with crime, housing and immigration, said that there was no other area in law where so many people who lost a case went straight to the next stage. “Something like 65 per cent who are refused asylum try again,” he said.

Mr Justice Collins also emphasised that asylum-seekers faced no financial costs. “They are almost all entitled to fee exemption, so there is no disincentive.”

He said that delays meant that some people started families. They then tried to stay in Britain by claiming that removal was a breach of their right to family life under the Human Rights Act.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Government is removing more failed asylum-seekers than ever before. We recognise that there is more work to do, but the rise in removals shows the success of government policy to remove people who have no right to be here.”

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